Maier appears on ABC news special Wednesday

Aug. 2, 2004

KALAMAZOO--When ABC News wanted to update one of its fall
2003 news specials, network newscasters turned to Western Michigan
University's Paul Maier for a fresh perspective on a topic that
has been capturing the public's imagination for well over a year.

The result is new material gleaned from interviews with Maier
that will be seen Wednesday, Aug. 4, when ABC reprises "Jesus,
Mary and Da Vinci," a "20/20" primetime special
originally broadcast in November. The show is set for broadcast
at 10 p.m. on most ABC affiliates, and examines some of the controversial
theories about Christianity expounded in the best-selling book
by Dan Brown, "The Da Vinci Code."

Maier, WMU's Seibert Professor of Ancient History, is the
co-author of "The Da Vinci Code--Fact or Fiction?,"
and he has been a favorite source for ABC on religious topics
in recent months, appearing last April as a major historical
source for the three-hour primetime special "Peter Jennings
Reporting: Jesus and Paul-The Word and the Witness."

"When I did 'Jesus and Paul' with them, they filmed about
two and a half hours of our interviews and really like them,"
Maier says. "For this special, they wanted a fresh look
this time around, so they took some of my interviews back up
from the cutting room floor."

For the new "20/20" treatment, hosted by Elizabeth
Vargas, Maier's comments and views on whether Mary Magdalene
was married to Jesus are among the new additions to the program.
Maier, who scoffs at the idea, says this and other errors in
Brown's book reflect some dubious research. In their new book,
Maier and his colleague Hank Hanegraaff of the Christian Research
Institute, challenge this and many other allegations that are
woven throughout Brown's novel and form the basis of the plot.

"In one of the interviews, we focused on the fact that
Jesus couldn't possibly have married Mary Magdalene," Maier
says.